Frequently asked questions - General

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How to create a personal dictionary from a list of words?

To quickly create a dictionary, there must be words in a list, with one word per line. Use the following procedure:

Open the list in Writer and select the Tools ▸ Word Count menu to get the number of words in the file.
Insert the number at the beginning of the file on a new line.
Sort the list:
- Select all (Ctrl + A).
- Select the Tools ▸ Sort menu.
- Leave the default options and press OK.
Save the file as text (.txt) and NOT encoded text(.txt) and close the file.
Rename the file MyDic.dic or a meaningful name, such as chemical.dic for names of chemical compounds for example.
Create another file with the same name as the dictionary, and an extension AFF, containing at least:

SET UTF-8

This file may also contain rules for word suggestions when the word is unknown.

Adding dictionaries is done with the help of an extension. You can build a more or less sophisticated extension.

Create a directory chemistry_dictionary, in which you need to add:

The two files mentioned above: chemical.dic and chemical.aff
A sub directory META-INF containing a file manifest.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE manifest:manifest PUBLIC "-//OpenOffice.org//DTD Manifest 1.0//EN" "Manifest.dtd">
<manifest:manifest xmlns:manifest="http://openoffice.org/2001/manifest">
   <manifest:file-entry manifest:media-type="application/vnd.sun.star.configuration-data"
       manifest:full-path="Dictionaries.xcu"/>
</manifest:manifest>

A file dictionnaries.xcu, in which you customize the dictionary name (!must be unique), the names of the files and possibly the local:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<oor:component-data xmlns:oor="http://openoffice.org/2001/registry" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" oor:name="Linguistic" oor:package="org.openoffice.Office">
 <node oor:name="ServiceManager">
    <node oor:name="Dictionaries">
        <node oor:name="HunSpellDic_fr_FR-chimie" oor:op="fuse">
           <prop oor:name="Locations" oor:type="oor:string-list">
               <value>%origin%/chimie.aff %origin%/chimie.dic</value>
           </prop>
           <prop oor:name="Format" oor:type="xs:string">
               <value>DICT_SPELL</value>
           </prop>
           <prop oor:name="Locales" oor:type="oor:string-list">
               <value>fr-FR fr-BE fr-CA fr-CH fr-LU fr-MC</value>
           </prop>
       </node>
   </node>
 </node>  
</oor:component-data>

A file description.xml with the following information:
- Mandatory header:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<description xmlns="http://openoffice.org/extensions/description/2006" xmlns:d="http://openoffice.org/extensions/description/2006"  xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">

An identifier that must be unique (it is advisable to follow the reverse domain name scheme)

   <identifier value="myorganization.myname.chemistry_dictionary" />

Version of the extension (!not of LibreOffice)

   <driver_version> value="1.0" />

The name of the extension in LibreOffice

   <display-name>

<name lang="en">Dictionary of chemical molecules</name>

   </display-name>

OS on which the extension is valid

   <platform value="all"/>

Versions of LibreOffice for which the extension is valid

 <dependencies>
  <OpenOffice.org-minimal-version Value="3.0" d:name="OpenOffice.org 3.0" />
 </dependencies>

[Optional] the license that applies (add the corresponding file)

   <registration>
       <simple-license accept-by="admin" suppress-on-update="false" >
           <license-text xlink:href="LICENCES-fr.txt" lang="fr" />
       </simple-license>
   </registration>

[Optional] the name of the publisher of the extension

   <publisher>
       <name xlink:href="http://www.myorganization/myname" lang="en">ChemicalDict</name>
   </publisher>

[Optional] an icon that appears in the Extension Manager (do not forget to add the files)

   <icon>
       <default xlink:href="icon.png" />
       <high-contrast xlink:href="icon_hc.png" />
   </icon>

[Optional] descriptive text that appears in the Extension Manager (do not forget the files)

   <extension-description>
       <src xlink:href="desc_en.txt" lang="en" />
   </extension-description>

* A mandatory final file

</description>

Additional files (licenses, images, ...) can be grouped into subdirectories.

Then, assemble the entire content of the directory mydictionary in a ZIP file and change the extension to OXT. That is, your extension is ready, you can install it as any extensions by the Tools ▸ Extensions Manager menu.

The Creating an extension for dictionaries contains more details.

Note:
The dictionary runs in uppercase or lowercase, but will not work in the plural, the conjugated forms, the feminine, etc...